1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to buckets for backhoes/excavators and more specifically it relates to a heated bucket system for significantly reducing the accumulation of frozen mud and ice within a bucket thereby maintaining the bucket's dirt moving capacity.
Backhoe operators often times must operate their machinery during cold weather conditions. When utilizing their machines, the buckets will accumulate mud and water within them when digging into moist ground. This mud and water then eventually becomes frozen within the interior portion of the bucket. Over a period of time this accumulated frozen material begins to significantly reduce the amount of interior volume within the bucket thereby significantly reducing the earth moving capacity. Even during warm weather conditions the mud will accumulate within the bucket. Hence, there is a need for a system that significantly reduces the amount of accumulated mud and ice within a bucket.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Backhoes and other excavating equipment have been in use for years. Typically, the backhoe has a frame, a motor, a bucket arm, and a bucket attached to the bucket arm. The user operates the bucket through hydraulic levers to dig the earth and move it to a desired location. When the outside temperature drops below freezing, water and mud begin to freeze within the bucket. The only currently utilized method of removing the frozen mud and water is to physically remove the frozen debris with a hard object such as a hammer or elongate shaft.
When the backhoe operator has to leave the machine to remove the frozen debris, the backhoe is not in operation making the user and the backhoe very unproductive. If the operator allows the debris to significantly accumulate within the bucket, the volume of earth that can be moved is significantly reduced thereby reducing productivity. In addition, often times the debris will accumulate within the bucket without the user being aware of the accumulation.
Examples of attempts to reduce the amount of frozen debris include U.S. Pat. No. 1,376,741 to J. L. Boyle; U.S. Pat. No. 1,127,407 to E. Clayborne; U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,623 to Weeks; U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,015 to Hemphill; U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,986 to Campbell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,307 to Schittino et al. which are all illustrative of such prior art.
J. L. Boyle (U.S. Pat. No. 1,376,741) discloses a steam heated snowplow. Boyle teaches a snowplow for a locomotive with the plow member having two walls connected by stay bolts with the stay bolts perforated to allow steam which enters the cavity to pass upwardly into direct contact with the snow upon the outer surface of the plow for melting the snow.
E. Clayborne (U.S. Pat. No. 1,127,407) discloses a snow plow. Clayborne teaches a plow member attachable to a locomotive wherein the plow member has a radiator that receives steam from the locomotive for melting and removing snow.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for significantly reducing the accumulation of frozen mud and ice within a bucket thereby maintaining the bucket's dirt moving capacity. There currently is no available system for removing ice and frozen mud from a bucket of a backhoe or excavating machine. In addition, conventional methods of removing frozen debris within a bucket are extremely time intensive making the user extremely inefficient.
In these respects, the heated bucket system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of significantly reducing the accumulation of frozen mud and ice within a bucket thereby maintaining the bucket's dirt moving capacity.